Perceptions and Attitudes Towards HIV/AIDS Patients among General Public in Bahrain

Introduction: HIV/AIDS is a major global health problem. In Bahrain, although the prevalence of HIV is low, awareness programs are of high importance for controlling and preventing the distribution of HIV infection. The aim of this study is to determine the attitudes and risk perceptions toward HIV/AIDS in Bahrain. Results of this study will provide background knowledge to inform existing and new educational and preventiveprograms. Methodology: A self-administered questionnaire-based survey was conducted among 1038 Bahraini adults. Results: The study showed varied attitudes toward HIV/AIDS, but mostly were negative, as 60% of participants agreed to isolate HIV/AIDS patients in workplaces and schools, and 52.4% of them believed that HIV is a divine punishment. A high proportion of respondents (84.4%) believed that religion plays an important role in minimizing the spread of the disease. Conclusions: The Bahraini public negative attitudes toward HIV/AIDS was a major finding of this study. Successful control programs of HIV infection require limiting the negative attitudes toward HIV patients and the disease. Those negative attitudes found in this study need to be addressed through new and currently existing education and health awareness programs in Bahrain. Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Public Attitudes, Stigmatization, Bahrai

Risk factors for 5-year mortality in a cohort of elderly patients with sarcopenia

Background: The association between multiple risk factors and the mortality of sarcopenic patients has not been studied. This study's aim is to report the prevalence of sarcopenia among a sample of Italian hospitalized older adults, describe the physical function, body fat composition, cognitive, inflammatory and nutritional status of sarcopenic compared with non-sarcopenic subjects, and determine the risk factors associated with mortality in sarcopenic patients. Method: A total of 462 patients were enrolled and followed up for a period of 5 years. Sarcopenia was diagnosed according to the EWGSOP2 criteria. Factors associated with sarcopenia were identified with linear regression analysis. Logistic regression was applied to explore the association between the risk factors and mortality in sarcopenic subjects. Survival analyses and predictors of mortality were identified using Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression. Results: The prevalence of sarcopenia was 33.5%. Linear regression showed that sarcopenia was associated with Barthel index (B −9.63, p0.004), BMI (B −3.19, p24.9 (HR 0.287 C95% 0.095–0.866 p 0.027). Conclusion: Sarcopenia is associated with low physical function and BMI but higher android fat. Low Barthel, BMI and albumin can significantly decrease the survival rate in sarcopenic patients. Whereas BMI >24.9 is associated with lower mortality hazard

Performance of Glass Resistive Plate Chambers for a high granularity semi-digital calorimeter

A new design of highly granular hadronic calorimeter using Glass Resistive Plate Chambers (GRPCs) with embedded electronics has been proposed for the future International Linear Collider (ILC) experiments. It features a 2-bit threshold semi-digital read-out. Several GRPC prototypes with their electronics have been successfully built and tested in pion beams. The design of these detectors is presented along with the test results on efficiency, pad multiplicity, stability and reproducibility.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figure

Artificial Intelligence in Predicting Heart Failure

Heart Failure is a major chronic disease that is increasing day by day and a great health burden in health care systems world wide. Artificial intelligence (AI) techniques such as machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL), and cognitive computer can play a critical role in the early detection and diagnosis of Heart Failure Detection, as well as outcome prediction and prognosis evaluation. The availability of large datasets from difference sources can be leveraged to build machine learning models that can empower clinicians by providing early warnings and insightful information on the underlying conditions of the patient

Construction and commissioning of a technological prototype of a high-granularity semi-digital hadronic calorimeter

A large prototype of 1.3m3 was designed and built as a demonstrator of the semi-digital hadronic calorimeter (SDHCAL) concept proposed for the future ILC experiments. The prototype is a sampling hadronic calorimeter of 48 units. Each unit is built of an active layer made of 1m2 Glass Resistive Plate Chamber(GRPC) detector placed inside a cassette whose walls are made of stainless steel. The cassette contains also the electronics used to read out the GRPC detector. The lateral granularity of the active layer is provided by the electronics pick-up pads of 1cm2 each. The cassettes are inserted into a self-supporting mechanical structure built also of stainless steel plates which, with the cassettes walls, play the role of the absorber. The prototype was designed to be very compact and important efforts were made to minimize the number of services cables to optimize the efficiency of the Particle Flow Algorithm techniques to be used in the future ILC experiments. The different components of the SDHCAL prototype were studied individually and strict criteria were applied for the final selection of these components. Basic calibration procedures were performed after the prototype assembling. The prototype is the first of a series of new-generation detectors equipped with a power-pulsing mode intended to reduce the power consumption of this highly granular detector. A dedicated acquisition system was developed to deal with the output of more than 440000 electronics channels in both trigger and triggerless modes. After its completion in 2011, the prototype was commissioned using cosmic rays and particles beams at CERN.Comment: 49 pages, 41 figure

Performance of the first prototype of the CALICE scintillator strip electromagnetic calorimeter

A first prototype of a scintillator strip-based electromagnetic calorimeter was built, consisting of 26 layers of tungsten absorber plates interleaved with planes of 45x10x3 mm3 plastic scintillator strips. Data were collected using a positron test beam at DESY with momenta between 1 and 6 GeV/c. The prototype's performance is presented in terms of the linearity and resolution of the energy measurement. These results represent an important milestone in the development of highly granular calorimeters using scintillator strip technology. This technology is being developed for a future linear collider experiment, aiming at the precise measurement of jet energies using particle flow techniques

The Time Structure of Hadronic Showers in highly granular Calorimeters with Tungsten and Steel Absorbers

The intrinsic time structure of hadronic showers influences the timing capability and the required integration time of hadronic calorimeters in particle physics experiments, and depends on the active medium and on the absorber of the calorimeter. With the CALICE T3B experiment, a setup of 15 small plastic scintillator tiles read out with Silicon Photomultipliers, the time structure of showers is measured on a statistical basis with high spatial and temporal resolution in sampling calorimeters with tungsten and steel absorbers. The results are compared to GEANT4 (version 9.4 patch 03) simulations with different hadronic physics models. These comparisons demonstrate the importance of using high precision treatment of low-energy neutrons for tungsten absorbers, while an overall good agreement between data and simulations for all considered models is observed for steel.Comment: 24 pages including author list, 9 figures, published in JINS

Perceived Barriers to Healthy Eating and Physical Activity among Adolescents in Seven Arab Countries: A Cross-Cultural Study

Objective. To highlight the perceived personal, social, and environmental barriers to healthy eating and physical activity among Arab adolescents. Method. A multistage stratified sampling method was used to select 4698 students aged 15–18 years (2240 males and 2458 females) from public schools. Seven Arab counties were included in the study, namely, Algeria, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Palestine, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates. Self-reported questionnaire was used to list the barriers to healthy eating and physical activity facing these adolescents. Results. It was found that lack of information on healthy eating, lack of motivation to eat a healthy diet, and not having time to prepare or eat healthy food were the main barriers to healthy eating among both genders. For physical activity, the main barriers selected were lack of motivation to do physical activity, less support from teachers, and lack of time to do physical activity. In general, females faced more barriers to physical activity than males in all countries included. There were significant differences between males and females within each country and among countries for most barriers. Conclusion. Intervention programmes to combat obesity and other chronic noncommunicable diseases in the Arab world should include solutions to overcome the barriers to weight maintenance, particularly the sociocultural barriers to practising physical activity

Observation of a first ντ\nu_\tau candidate in the OPERA experiment in the CNGS beam

The OPERA neutrino detector in the underground Gran Sasso Laboratory (LNGS) has been designed to perform the first detection of neutrino oscillations in direct appearance mode through the study of the $\nu_\mu\rightarrow\nu_\tau$ channel. The hybrid apparatus consists of an emulsion/lead target complemented by electronic detectors and it is placed in the high energy long-baseline CERN to LNGS beam (CNGS) 730 km away from the neutrino source. Runs with CNGS neutrinos were successfully carried out in 2008 and 2009. After a brief description of the beam, the experimental setup and the procedures used for the analysis of the neutrino events, we describe the topology and kinematics of a first candidate $\nu_\tau$ charged-current event satisfying the kinematical selection criteria. The background calculations and their cross-check are explained in detail and the significance of the event is assessed.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figure